The nude rarely escapes traditional ideas about gender, but Thawatchai Somkong’s MISS sets out to redraw that picture. Focusing on trans women as its central subjects, the exhibition presents portraits and figurative paintings that celebrate lives often left out of mainstream art history. The show arrives as conversations around gender identity continue to evolve across Thailand, even after the country’s recent progress on marriage equality. Working across realism, pop art and cubist influences, Somkong combines bold colour with richly textured surfaces, using each canvas to explore visibility, dignity and the right to define oneself on one's own terms.
June 8-28. Free entry. Blacklist Gallery and Matdot Gallery. 10am-6pm
